Fish massala was a success! Sunday dawned another sunny day so it was decided that we would all go fishing. We stopped at a couple of places around hobart but the fish were not biting. Although the bloke next to us pulled out six fish as we were struggling! We tried for about 3-4 hours and then gave up. We had a nice tour around Hobart and it really is a nice spot. Monday was spent getting ready to leave and in the evening we took Robert and Robyn out for a Thai meal. Again this was excellent. Tuesday was Robyn's golf day so she left early and we loaded up the car and set off to the airport. We can't thank them enough, they have been great hosts.

We had the one hour flight to Melbourne and then a 3 hour wait for the flight to Aukland. It didn't get into Aukland till 23.35 which wasn't good but at least it meant that it wasn't a poular flight so we had a row of seats to ourselves and could stretch out nicely. Brads was there to meet us as arranged and he took us back to his parents house for the night. His mum was still up so we had a chat and several beers and eventually got to bed at 3.00am! Up at 8.00 am to go to the airport to collect our car. A very good deal arranged by Brads but not the most recent of models!! It still had a cassette player and the seats are very difficult to extract yourself from! but once it gets going it rolls along nicely. We headed up north island towards the Bay of Islands. We stopped at a place called Whangerei for the first night, nothing much there but we went to the ubiquitous Irish Pub for a meal and a guiness. It was a 2 hour drive up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands and it is a stunning place We booked in at the Sea Spray motel and then headed up to Waitangi golf course. A good course with stunning views of the sea and mountains. Half way round we were caught up by a lone golfer who we invited to join us. Believe it or not he came from Bradford now lived in Boroughbridge. His wife was caddying for him. He had played at Wembley for Leeds and also played for Bradford--name of Stan Fearnley. Then to make it even more bizarre he had worked with Chris Nicholls and Bob Harrap!! So inevitably this developed into a long session of beers and we parted company well oiled at about 10.30pm!

They had to go on a long bus trip the next day and we had a quiet day with a ferry trip across the bay to Russell island, a small settlement but a load of history attached, which filled the day nicely. There was great excitement in Paihia as The Queen Mary 2 had moored ion the harbour overnight and was a fine sight. We met Stan and wife again for a quit couple and then an early night was had by all.

We then headed off west across the peninsula . It was another stunning drive, lakes, rolling hills then the Waipoua Forest. This was totally different in as much it rained heavily and the mist was low. We stopped to see the Lord of the Forest which was a huge Kauri tree-- an amazing sight. The weather improved as we left the forest and we headed down the coast towards Aukland. Unfortunately we got lost and spent 2 hours retracing our steps! Eventually we got back on the right road and after some difficulty we found some digs at a beautful B& B. It was a very old house built in the 1890's by a wealthy englishman. We stayed in the annexe which he had built for his governess/mistress. Nothing had really changed since those days!

The next morning we spent at a lovely museum dedicated to the Kauri tree. The history of the early settlers and the logging activities. It was fascinating. We then drove the remainder to Hamilton where Brads was waiting at home with the kids and Kelsey who cooked us a great feed on the bbq. He has a lovely place with lots of space. Pictures will be published.